Friday, February 26, 2010

The Deep Joy of De-Normalizing

Neil Kramer's most recent post over at The Cleaver blog is a great read. Here's an excerpt on "normality":

You can see it in people’s faces. They settle for that which they know to be deficient and unfulfilling. The rationale is that some contact is better than no contact. This is particularly prevalent in intimate relationships. When humans are fundamentally disconnected from themselves and each other, they are vulnerable to the insidious gravitational pull of the mainstream cultural paradigm. They get all normal.

At the primary level, those who choose not to be the architect of their own consciousness, and therefore disclaim their own daily existence, are anchoring the density of the construct with every recycled meme that passes their lips and every electro-chemical notion that fires across their frontal lobe. They are hungry pacman ghosts roaming the sepulchral corridors of unreality, forever repeating the same corrosive patterns, unable to satiate themselves on any level. The virus of renunciation consumes its own host. The only way to offset the muted but incessant background pain derived from this way of living, is to embrace normality. To watch TV and resonate along with its frequency of ordinariness and indifference. To consume. To buy fake products, fake food, fake music. To wear cheap clothes and running shoes that are derived directly from the blood of economic slaves. This is a karmic declaration. And should the inner self spontaneously break through and find its voice amid this toxicity, then with the utmost urgency, the mind must be immersed in the low-resonance, high-density media swamp. When the mind sucks in vulgarity, regression and ignoble deeds, the psychological pain momentarily subsides as the spirit retreats far from the centre of our being.

For those who walk the path - normality is fake, it does not exist. For construct dwellers, the roots of normalcy do not emerge from any particular socio-economic class. It is spread equally across all demographic classifications of A, B, C1, C2, D and E social grades (this is the UK mapping). Normals, as we might call them, are in fact characterized largely by their negative aspect, by what they do not do. For example, normals create little or nothing. True innovation, spontaneity, risk taking and courage are barely perceptible in the course of their lives. They demonstrate the appalling trait of obviousness in most thoughts and deeds. They tend not to question the authoritative hierarchies that control their lives. They certainly prefer not to discuss matters of substance. Contemplations on the mysterious nature of existence within the astonishing elegance of the universe is unthinkable. They’re just not into any of that stuff. It’s not perceived as a worthwhile or rewarding activity, as it does not advantage them within the mainstream paradigm. What is to be had from being contemplative or philosophical? There is no commercial value and such things bring only existential unrest. So they avoid it. Disown it. Replace it. Fear it. Whatever. Watch television.